Project Brave Update

“Progressive Ayr ” Update from Head of Academy

After the recent announcement of AUFA success in achieving the Progressive Performance tier for the Scottish FA Project Brave structure, AUFA would like to update all players, parents and supporters of the key progress and appointments we have made to help achieve the Project Brave criteria.

Over the last 6 months AUFA have been developing & improving departments of the Academy and with this, brought new appointments and new roles which will be added to our current structure and personnel

A summary of key appointments and departments are:

Craig Dargo – Head of Professional Program. Craig will manage the 16 to 20s age groups. This will include football and education development of these players, including our School of Football programme and our Ayrshire College Education course as well as conducting daily training sessions. Craig will also assist the Head of Academy with our Coach Education programme we operate internally at AUFA

John Chisholm – Head of Football Science & Medicine. John will manage and develop our Football science and medicine department. He will work with all our children’s and youth teams as well as some individual players improving their Athletic ability as well as providing lifestyle advice to players. John will also liaise closely with our Head AUFA Physio, Jennifer Jones and our new AUFA doctor Gregor Purdie to ensure health and wellbeing provision for all AUFA players

Nicholas Provan – Performance Analysis – This new role will see Nicholas video all AUFA games. The process will then see specific software used to Tag certain moments of the games and will then be provided to coaches’ and players to review both team and individual performance. Nicholas will also provide data from AUFA games to the Scottish FA to help them select National players for their 15s to 21s National squads

Jim Gallagher – Head of Goalkeeping. Jim will work across all age groups from 9s to 20s working on specific goalkeeping sessions and the development and recruitment of AUFA goalkeepers. Jim will also liaise with 1st Team and 20s Goalkeeping coach Derek Stillie

Shaun Ferrie – Head of Youth Program. Shaun will focus on player development across the 13s to 16s age group, working closely with players, coaches and staff to assist in player development within this department

Ross Armour – Head of Children’s Program. Ross will focus on player development across the 11s to 13s age group, working closely with players, coaches and staff to assist in player development within this department

Grant Ogston – Junior Academy Manager. Grant will manage and coordinate the players within 8s, 9s & 10s age group at AUFA. These players receive additional training with AUFA as well as playing for there chosen boys club

Kev Harper and Steven McLean – AUFA Youth Coaches. Both Kevin and Steven are Scottish FA License coaches and have experience of Pro Youth coaching at other clubs. Both will coach at weekly games and training with AUFA squads. They will be added to the complement of Qualified coaches currently involved with AUFA teams

All the above were new staff and developments that AUFA put in place to ensure our drive to Elite level could be a realistic move

Alongside these summarized above we will continue to have in place the following key positions

David White – Head of Academy

John Crawford – Director of Academy Football

Raymond Pattison – Head of Recruitment

Stuart Galloway – Head of Administration

AUFA Coaches – The current coaching staff also has many experienced and local coaches who will continue to drive forward our player development and assist our desire to achieve Elite level status through their commitment each week on the pitch with our AUFA players

David White, Head of Academy added“Following on from yesterday’s release from AUFA on project brave, AUFA and indeed myself have received a number of enquiries on what does Project Brave look like for AUFA

Above is a summary of the key developments and appointment we have made over last 4 months to ensure we were selected for Progressive Performance or Elite level within Scottish FA Project Brave structure

We are excited to have added the personnel above and, I must add we are delighted to have retained the current coaches and staff we have within the various departments, many of whom have dedicated there time and efforts to AUFA over the last 8 years

AUFA has now around 50 staff and volunteers working hands on or via a support role within our Pro Youth department. Every one of them is driven to providing the best environment they can for our young players and to help support them into AUFC 1st team

Over the next couple of months, the Scottish FA will put in place a new Project Brave games structure which will include change of season, new age groups added to existing pathway and a new fixture list which will include both elite and Progressive performance teams playing each other. As soon as this information is shared with AUFA we will get information out to all involved.

1st team manager Ian McCall and everyone at the Club and Academy cannot wait for the new Project Brave season to start in February 2018”!!

ABOUT

Ayr United Football Academy (AUFA) was founded in 2005 as an independent company, a Scottish registered charity, a Community Sports Hub, a Social Enterprise company and is incorporated as a not for profit Company Limited by guarantee. AUFA Pro Youth teams participate in SFA Club Academy Scotland (CAS) Group 1 and attained Silver Star status beginning season 2015-16. AUFA Women and Girls teams participate within SFA Scottish Women's Football (SWF) group of leagues. Track the Academy via the website www.aufa.org.uk, Linkedin, Facebook or on Twitter.